poison ivy
Well-known member
I was really excited when my husband, Sherpa Shaggy, agreed to spend New Year’s Eve at Zealand hut — even after realizing that it was going to require a six-mile hike in. Joining in for the mixture of peakbagging and New Year’s fun were MichaelJ, HikerBob and Bob&Geri.
Our trip didn’t start out very auspiciously when MichaelJ, HikerBob, Shaggy & I met at the parking lot, ready to tow our new gear sleds up Zealand Road. The bridge at the beginning of the road had planks and netting on it, so it appeared that we would have to take the half-mile bypass trail around it. (We later learned there was also a ranger there telling people that the bridge was unsafe to cross but we did not speak to him.) We knew Bob&Geri had done the same since their car was parked at the far end of the lot, which is closer to the bypass, and off we headed in that direction.
I can’t emphasize what a huge mistake that was! Do not under any circumstances attempt to tow a gear sled along the bypass. Knock the ranger over and run, swim the river, whatever… just do no use that bypass. It took us almost two hours to get through the half-mile — we had to carry our sleds over icy stairs and lots of bumps and gullies — and I’m pretty sure that every single one of us was swearing at one point or another. We were very relieved when we finally reached Zealand Road — but not so happy to see a couple of people crossing the bridge.
Skiing up the road went a whole lot better — at least there weren’t any obstacles to carry the sleds over. I found it to be so much easier to ski uphill with a sled than with a pack full of stuff. Sherpa Shaggy is not a terrific skier so our pace was slow and MichaelJ went on ahead, since he was carrying a lasagna for dinner and wanted to arrive at the hut in plenty of time to start cooking it. So, HikerBob, Shaggy & I took our time skiing up the road.
Upon arriving at the Zealand Trail, we stopped to chat with a couple of skiers before heading into the woods. Unfortunately, the ski conditions were not great and our sleds were dipping into all of the bumps and gullies, which were often filled with running water. We quickly decided to abandon our skis and just hike instead.
I was trying to tow in both Shaggy’s and my gear on our one sled, which really wasn’t big enough. We could not get the weight distributed evenly and it tipped over frequently. I decided to christen our sled "Monday" since Mondays suck and so did our sled. HikerBob’s "top secret" pole design fared much better than our little rope and conduit job. Eventually Shaggy carried my pack, which was lighter than his, and we were able to keep the rest of the sled upright for the majority of the hike. Despite the sled difficulties, we had a pleasant walk in — seeing lots of trees that looked like they were chewed by beavers and pretty views from the boggy area.
It was about 4:30 p.m. when the three of us arrived at the dock, 1/10th of a mile below Zealand Hut. We unloaded the sleds and skis and carried our gear up to the hut. We were happy to be done hiking and HikerBob and I marveled at how we somehow managed once again to turn something that was supposed to be easy into a long, and occasionally trying day.
We picked out our bunks and settled in for the night. Celebrating New Year’s with Michael’s terrific vegetarian lasagna, a nice bottle of wine, and a few rounds of cribbage. We decided to celebrate New Year’s when it arrived at HikerBob’s native England (7 p.m.) and were all in bed around 9 p.m.
On Sunday morning, we were up at 7 a.m. for a quick breakfast of bagels and pineapple juice. We were a little slow getting on the trail and weren’t out the door until around 9 a.m. I had fallen on a water run earlier that morning on an icy stretch of trail near the hut, so I decided to head up to Mt. Zealand with crampons on right off the bat. It took us a while to climb that first mile of steep stuff but we eventually found ourselves on top of Zeacliff — which had a bit of a view. White clouds were rolling over Vose Spur and Carrigain and slowly swallowing our view of the Willey Range. I was glad to finally see something of a view here — twice before all I saw was a long, white cloud.
From Zeacliff, the trail is not bad at all — mainly on a ridge with just two or three steep areas, that were somewhat icy. It was just before noon when we finally reached the summit of Zealand, my 18th winter peak and HikerBob’s 14th. I knew due to the late start, that I wasn’t going to make it all the way over to West Bond, as I had hoped. HikerBob & I said goodbye to Michael, Bob & Geri, who were staying another night at the hut and had plenty of time to get to the Bonds and back, and started down the trail.
It was a much quicker hike back to the hut. While I only got one or two glissades in (on the steep sections) HikerBob had better luck and was able to slide down much more of the trail. Just as we came in view of the hut, we passed Hikerfast, who was heading up to Zealand for his final peak on the winter 48. We stopped to chat for a few minutes and he headed up, while we went back down to the hut to collect Shaggy & our things for the trip out.
After about a half-hour for lunch and packing, we headed down to the dock to load up our sleds. The hut’s caretaker, Adam, kindly helped us bring our gear down and load up — he wanted to see our sleds in action. Shaggy and I once again tried to pile all our gear on the sled and within 10 steps it tipped over, so I decided to carry my pack while he pulled "Monday." It didn’t tip over at all after that.
We initially started hiking but after being passed by a couple of skiers, I couldn’t resist skiing down to the road. I had a lot of fun skiing and trying to make it over all those little brook crossings — mostly unsuccessfully. I toughed it out to Zealand Road, though there were areas it would have clearly been better to just walk instead of ski. Along the way, we crossed paths with Abster, who was on her way up to spend the night at Zealand with Hikerfast, MichaelJ and Bob&Geri.
When we reached the road at around 4:30 p.m., I took over with the sled since I knew Shaggy was going to have trouble with the first mile of downhill-ish skiing. He actually did okay having a grand time heading downhill but broke the binding of his ski during a fall. We couldn’t figure out how to fix it there, so he had to walk out the rest of the way. That slowed us up a bit but we eventually made it down to the bridge, where I found HikerBob talking to a couple of snowmobilers. We crawled under the bridge and threw our packs over the top to get across - there was no way we were doing that bypass in the dark. We made it back out to the cars at 6:30 p.m. and headed to the Station for a New Year’s Day dinner.
A great way to spend New Year’s… even Shaggy enjoyed it (now that he is home.) Thanks to Bob&Geri, MichaelJ & HikerBob for coming along!
My pictures can be found here.
- Ivy
Our trip didn’t start out very auspiciously when MichaelJ, HikerBob, Shaggy & I met at the parking lot, ready to tow our new gear sleds up Zealand Road. The bridge at the beginning of the road had planks and netting on it, so it appeared that we would have to take the half-mile bypass trail around it. (We later learned there was also a ranger there telling people that the bridge was unsafe to cross but we did not speak to him.) We knew Bob&Geri had done the same since their car was parked at the far end of the lot, which is closer to the bypass, and off we headed in that direction.
I can’t emphasize what a huge mistake that was! Do not under any circumstances attempt to tow a gear sled along the bypass. Knock the ranger over and run, swim the river, whatever… just do no use that bypass. It took us almost two hours to get through the half-mile — we had to carry our sleds over icy stairs and lots of bumps and gullies — and I’m pretty sure that every single one of us was swearing at one point or another. We were very relieved when we finally reached Zealand Road — but not so happy to see a couple of people crossing the bridge.
Skiing up the road went a whole lot better — at least there weren’t any obstacles to carry the sleds over. I found it to be so much easier to ski uphill with a sled than with a pack full of stuff. Sherpa Shaggy is not a terrific skier so our pace was slow and MichaelJ went on ahead, since he was carrying a lasagna for dinner and wanted to arrive at the hut in plenty of time to start cooking it. So, HikerBob, Shaggy & I took our time skiing up the road.
Upon arriving at the Zealand Trail, we stopped to chat with a couple of skiers before heading into the woods. Unfortunately, the ski conditions were not great and our sleds were dipping into all of the bumps and gullies, which were often filled with running water. We quickly decided to abandon our skis and just hike instead.
I was trying to tow in both Shaggy’s and my gear on our one sled, which really wasn’t big enough. We could not get the weight distributed evenly and it tipped over frequently. I decided to christen our sled "Monday" since Mondays suck and so did our sled. HikerBob’s "top secret" pole design fared much better than our little rope and conduit job. Eventually Shaggy carried my pack, which was lighter than his, and we were able to keep the rest of the sled upright for the majority of the hike. Despite the sled difficulties, we had a pleasant walk in — seeing lots of trees that looked like they were chewed by beavers and pretty views from the boggy area.
It was about 4:30 p.m. when the three of us arrived at the dock, 1/10th of a mile below Zealand Hut. We unloaded the sleds and skis and carried our gear up to the hut. We were happy to be done hiking and HikerBob and I marveled at how we somehow managed once again to turn something that was supposed to be easy into a long, and occasionally trying day.
We picked out our bunks and settled in for the night. Celebrating New Year’s with Michael’s terrific vegetarian lasagna, a nice bottle of wine, and a few rounds of cribbage. We decided to celebrate New Year’s when it arrived at HikerBob’s native England (7 p.m.) and were all in bed around 9 p.m.
On Sunday morning, we were up at 7 a.m. for a quick breakfast of bagels and pineapple juice. We were a little slow getting on the trail and weren’t out the door until around 9 a.m. I had fallen on a water run earlier that morning on an icy stretch of trail near the hut, so I decided to head up to Mt. Zealand with crampons on right off the bat. It took us a while to climb that first mile of steep stuff but we eventually found ourselves on top of Zeacliff — which had a bit of a view. White clouds were rolling over Vose Spur and Carrigain and slowly swallowing our view of the Willey Range. I was glad to finally see something of a view here — twice before all I saw was a long, white cloud.
From Zeacliff, the trail is not bad at all — mainly on a ridge with just two or three steep areas, that were somewhat icy. It was just before noon when we finally reached the summit of Zealand, my 18th winter peak and HikerBob’s 14th. I knew due to the late start, that I wasn’t going to make it all the way over to West Bond, as I had hoped. HikerBob & I said goodbye to Michael, Bob & Geri, who were staying another night at the hut and had plenty of time to get to the Bonds and back, and started down the trail.
It was a much quicker hike back to the hut. While I only got one or two glissades in (on the steep sections) HikerBob had better luck and was able to slide down much more of the trail. Just as we came in view of the hut, we passed Hikerfast, who was heading up to Zealand for his final peak on the winter 48. We stopped to chat for a few minutes and he headed up, while we went back down to the hut to collect Shaggy & our things for the trip out.
After about a half-hour for lunch and packing, we headed down to the dock to load up our sleds. The hut’s caretaker, Adam, kindly helped us bring our gear down and load up — he wanted to see our sleds in action. Shaggy and I once again tried to pile all our gear on the sled and within 10 steps it tipped over, so I decided to carry my pack while he pulled "Monday." It didn’t tip over at all after that.
We initially started hiking but after being passed by a couple of skiers, I couldn’t resist skiing down to the road. I had a lot of fun skiing and trying to make it over all those little brook crossings — mostly unsuccessfully. I toughed it out to Zealand Road, though there were areas it would have clearly been better to just walk instead of ski. Along the way, we crossed paths with Abster, who was on her way up to spend the night at Zealand with Hikerfast, MichaelJ and Bob&Geri.
When we reached the road at around 4:30 p.m., I took over with the sled since I knew Shaggy was going to have trouble with the first mile of downhill-ish skiing. He actually did okay having a grand time heading downhill but broke the binding of his ski during a fall. We couldn’t figure out how to fix it there, so he had to walk out the rest of the way. That slowed us up a bit but we eventually made it down to the bridge, where I found HikerBob talking to a couple of snowmobilers. We crawled under the bridge and threw our packs over the top to get across - there was no way we were doing that bypass in the dark. We made it back out to the cars at 6:30 p.m. and headed to the Station for a New Year’s Day dinner.
A great way to spend New Year’s… even Shaggy enjoyed it (now that he is home.) Thanks to Bob&Geri, MichaelJ & HikerBob for coming along!
My pictures can be found here.
- Ivy
Last edited:
